Her Daughters

Her Daughters is a heartfelt collection of autofictional short stories centered on one African-American family in Modesto, California. Author Roach-Carter weaves together carefully-chosen highlights in his family members' lives to paint a rich picture of life through the generations.

"TreVaughn Roach-Carter's brilliant stories in Her Daughters celebrate the victories of Black women in one extended family. They also speak truth to power about microaggressions and class biases as well as terrifying acts of racism and misogyny that threaten everything these sisters, daughters, mothers, and aunts have worked to accomplish. The story "Sphere of Influence" unpacks the hidden codes and assumptions within a prestigious university and should be required reading in every high school and college in America. Together, these stories revel in caring and joy and ultimately victory over adversity."--May-lee Chai, author of Tomorrow in Shanghai & Other Stories

"In Her Daughters, TreVaughn Roach-Carter weaves a rich, compelling tapestry of voices exploring love and family, joy and persistence, hope and hurt and longing and so much more. Here is life and resilience, distilled on the page. Here is a graceful tribute to Black women's lives, rooted in real stories, flourishing in fiction, made to sing." --Carolina De Robertis, author of Cantoras and The President and the Frog

"A capacious and emotionally astute collection of linked stories ranging over much of the twentieth and into the twenty first century, Her Daughters follows three generations of Black women from Mississippi to Modesto and beyond. With elegant prose and a keen sense of how historical forces intersect with individual lives, Roach-Carter weaves a beautiful fictional rendition of his own family history. Tracing a kaleidoscopic portrait of daughters, aunts, mothers, and grandmothers, the book explores themes of identity, family, and belonging with sensitivity and grace that will resonate with any reader."--Michael David Lukas, author of The Oracle of Stamboul and The Last Watchman of Old Cairo

"I admire the scope of this roving collection, which passes easily through generations, and offers us many voices, experiences, and perspectives. Rather than taking on a central protagonist, Her Daughters explores a multifaceted community of women--grandmothers, daughters, mothers, cousins, and aunties, from whose strong and complex network of care this collection weaves its world. A portrait of family in a wide-ranging sense, and also of a California that holds Modesto at its center, the heart from which these lines of connection radiate outward, these are stories of people finding--and fighting for--a sense of home." --Shruti Swamy, author of A House Is a Body and The Archer

Fiction. Young Adult. African & African American Studies. LGBTQ+ Studies.